Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky was the author of some of the
most popular themes in all of classical music. He
founded no school, struck out no new paths or
compositional methods, and sought few innovations in
his works. Yet the power and communicative sweep of his
best music elevates it to classic status, even if it
lacks the formal boldness and harmonic sophistication
heard in the compositions of his contemporaries, Wagner
and Bruckner. It was Tchaikovsky's unique melodic charm
that could, whether in his Piano Concerto No. 1 or in
his ballet The Nutcracker or in his tragic last
symphony, make the music sound familiar on first
hearing.

Known as a salon piece, Tchaikovsky's Chanson triste,
the second of the twelve short piano compositions,
published as Douze morceaux (difficulté moyenne), is
typical of the numerous Romantic miniature composed, as
the title indicates, for amateur pianists. Deceptively
slight, of an almost transparent simplicity, this
morceau nevertheless captivates the listener with its
disarming sincerity. Indeed, the inner narrative,
carried by the fluid momentum of the music, may suggest
feelings of subdued, almost forgotten, sadness, but the
music remains engaging throughout the piece, sometimes
even rising to a discernible level of dramatic
intensity, which eventually, toward the end, yields to
an aural mist, in which the initially adumbrated
melancholy slowly, gradually, like a weakening echo,
disappears in the abyss of an unremembered past. That
this music is worthy of great pianist is confirmed by
Sviatoslav Richter's powerfully serene performance of
this piece.

Tchaikovsky composed Chanson triste in 1878, a
turbulent year, marked by his struggle to distance
himself from his estranged wife, Antonina, who rejected
a suggested divorce. In the midst of his emotional
turmoil, the composer managed to find some peace at
Kamenka, where he had use of a cottage. There, while
working on his Piano Sonata in G major, Op. 37 and the
Album for Children, Op. 39, Tchaikovsky composed the
twelve pieces which include the Chanson triste.

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